AMD Launches AM1 Desktop Platform, 'Kabini' APUs

Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday announced the availability of a quartet of new low-priced Athlon and Sempron APUs featuring the chip maker's Graphics Core Next (GCN) GPU architecture and Jaguar-class CPU cores.

AMD is billing the new parts, which range in price from $34 to $59, as System-on-a-Chip (SoC) solutions for system builders in the company's partner channel. The new quad-core Athlon 5350, Athlon 5150, and Sempron 3850, as well as the dual-core Sempron 2650 are the APUs formerly code named Kabini that drop into AMD's new AM1 computing platform.

"AMD consistently builds on its industry-leading technology by continuing to offer a diversified product stack which is proven today with the availability of the AM1 platform with 'socketed' Sempron and Athlon APUs designed for the mainstream market," Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD's Client Business Unit, said in a statement.

"With quad-core performance and AMD Radeon graphics, the AM1 platform is an affordable solution that provides great flexibility due to an infrastructure built to deliver a multitude of options to our end users and system builders."

Here's the breakdown of specs and prices for AMD's new Kabini-class APUs, which were made available today:

Analyst Patrick Moorhead said the return of two signature AMD brands demonstrated that the chip maker has returned to playing to its strengths in the lower portion of the business and mainstream desktop market.

"Welcome back, Athlon and Sempron as desktop brands. I think this really best exemplifies the performance per watt per dollar that AMD brings to the table, particularly in graphics and in HSA-enabled applications," said Moorhead, principal analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy.

"They are not asking a lot for these APUs but the die is very small, and I think these parts are going to be lucrative for AMD. I think China is a target market as well as very small form factor desktops elsewhere, which will come out after standard desktops using these chips."

AMD's new AM1 platform is now available in North America from Amazon, NCIX, Newegg, and TigerDirect.

Damon Poeter got his start in journalism working for the English-language daily newspaper The Nation in Bangkok, Thailand. He covered everything from local news to sports and entertainment before settling on technology in the mid-2000s. Prior to joining PCMag, Damon worked at CRN and the Gilroy Dispatch. He has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle and Japan Times, among other newspapers and periodicals.
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